436 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



silo for winter use. This green food in winter will enable 

 the sheep-farmer of the older States to make as good 

 progress in winter-feeding as the sheep-farmers of Europe 

 with the aid of succulent roots. The great advantage of 

 turnips for sheep in winter is, that they counteract the 

 effect of the dry food given. 



A most important consideration in favor of the silo is, 

 that the feeder may not only give variety in the ration, but 

 he may give a ration containing the proper proportion of 

 food elements. The silo has been discussed in this country 

 almost wholly as a means of preserving fodder-corn ; but 

 as fodder-corn is only a partial food, and must be fed with 

 some more nitrogenous food to produce a satisfactory re- 

 sult, the silo could only be a very partial success if it only 

 preserved this one green food. Its great result must be 

 looked for in enabling the feeder to mingle in the silo sev- 

 eral different green foods which unitedly contain the food 

 elements in the proper proportion for growing or fattening 

 animals. As sheep will fatten very fast upon a good pasture 

 which contains a variety of the best grasses, so they should 

 gain as rapidly when fed from a silo upon green fodder-corn, 

 clover, millet, rape, peas, oats, etc., containing a combination 

 of the same food element in as -digestible a condition. It is a 

 common opinion among farmers (which we do not wholly 

 share), that grain is the most expensive food, and that 

 sheep are kept much cheaper upon pasture or hay than 

 upon hay and grain. It is only necessary to feed grain 

 because hay is less digestible than grass. Now, the silo, if 

 successful, will enable sheep to be fed upon grass in as 

 succulent a state in winter as in summer. This may 

 render the older States, which "have reached a diminished 

 capacity for grain raising, independent of Western grain 

 in the production of meat. These States are still well 

 adapted to the production of the grasses and every green 

 food required for winter feeding, when preserved in silo ; 



